Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a base transceiver station (BTS) and a wireless mobile device. In the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) systems, the BTS is a combination of an evolved Node Bs (eNode Bs or eNBs) and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) in a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), which communicates with the wireless mobile device, known as a user equipment (UE). Data is transmitted from the eNode B to the UE via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is used to transfer downlink control information (DCI) that informs the UE about resource allocations or scheduling related to downlink resource assignments on the PDSCH, uplink resource grants, and uplink power control commands The PDCCH can be transmitted prior the PDSCH in each subframe transmitted from the eNode B to the UE.
The PDCCH signal is designed to be demodulated at the UE based on a cell specific reference signal (CRS). However, the use of a CRS does not take into account the increased complexities of advanced LTE systems. For instance, in heterogeneous networks, multiple nodes can simultaneously transmit within a single cell. The use of the cell specific reference signal can limit advanced techniques to increase cell capacity.